Dancing in the Middle of Time
by LeSkuh
Summary: Eight years later: Lila must save the world from evil shadows. Helga's the leader. Arnold wasn't really dead. Wolfgang wants Helga. Gerald and Phoebe are in LOVE. Brainy's a sweetheart. HeAr, GePh, BrHe, LiAr, onesided WoHe. What more could you ask for?
1. Prologue

**Dancing in the Middle of Time**

-Squirrel Tamer

**Prologue**

Arnold laughed as he swung the bat, sending the ball flying towards third. He ran as fast as he could, pumping his arms to speed himself up. He could see the white edge of the base looming closer; he put on another burst of speed and dived for the base. A cloud of dust rose around him and he smiled.

"You're out!" He heard his pig-tailed friend Helga yell.

"Huh?" He mumbled stupidly. Something tapped him on his head and he looked up to see Sid standing over him, grinning widely while tossing the small white baseball up and down. Arnold groaned and stood up, brushing himself off. He was about to argue with Helga when he saw a young girl with long red hair smiling at him. He closed his mouth deciding that if he complained, Lila might think him a poor loser.

Arnold was too busy staring at his beloved Lila to notice that a certain blond haired nine year old was glaring at them both, her hands clenched into fists. Helga Geraldine Pataki's bright blue eyes seemed to almost turn a dark and menacing red as she continued to stare at the young boy so obviously entranced with her most hated enemy, Lila.

Of course Lila was only her most hated enemy because Arnold liked her.

"Snap out of it man!" Arnold shook his head as his best friend Gerald raised an eyebrow to him. The football headed kid walked back towards the bench, giving a light wave to Lila. Lila frowned and turned away from him, apparently waving was going to get him one of those 'I like you, but I don't _like _you like you' speeches Lila was famous for. He had heard about ten a week, for over a month now.

"Hey Pheebs!" He heard Helga call over the field to her friend, "What time is it? I got a dentist appointment at four!"

Arnold didn't pay much attention as the young Japanese girl looked down at the watch on her arm. He wasn't watching when she shook it, muttering to herself about it being a cheap piece of junk. But he did turn his head as the Earth let out a strange moan. It was Helga who screamed first, pointing to something above him. He whirled around to find a shadow like creature smiling at him. He rolled off the bench and began to run. He could hear everyone screaming behind him. He let out a small whimper of fear and began running. He tripped forward landing hard in the dirt.

"Arnold!" Someone called; he looked up to see Helga standing over him, her fists raised, ready to protect him. He heard the screech of car wheels as Big Bob Pataki pulled up to the side of the curb. He was yelling something to Helga and Helga was refusing to move. He could see the ground splitting all around him. Could hear Helga's mangled screams as Bob wrenched on her arm managed to drag her away from him. The ribbon from her hair was ripped off in the wind and landed near him. He wrapped his fingers around it and held on tight as if it could be an anchor to hold him there even if the world fell away from beneath his feet.

His mind was a haze of thoughts, and it was awful not knowing what was happening. But he couldn't see what was going on, the dark black fog settling over the world was growing too great. But what he would remember for years to come was the unexplainable cold he felt as something wrapped its long dark figures around his leg and pulled him into the darkness.

A/N: Here's just the prologue. Don't worry--Regular chapters will be much longer and hopefully a lot more exciting.


	2. Old Friends

**Dancing in the Middle of Time**

-Squirrel Tamer

**Chapter 1: Old Friends**

"Could you let go? I'm not going anywhere! This place is way too locked up for that! Come on, just ease up okay? Ouch! Don't you poke me with my own sword!" Twenty or so eyes turned at the voice. They looked to the big rusty iron door with the seven locks and just watched, as each one was unlocked. A shadowy figure glided into the room its strange translucent arms wrapped around a young black human man with short black hair, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. Another shadowy figure held a long thick sword to the young man's back. The man's eye kept darting to it.

Yet another shadow entered behind them this one with a strange machine strapped to its arm or, more likely, as a part of its arm. It was more feminine in look; its large yellow eyes rounder than the slits the other two had and its movements were gentler. It pressed one of the buttons on its machine arm and waited as it made a loud whirring sound and then stopped and made a popping sound. A small brass key popped out of the end. The figure made no sound as it simply walked to a one of the large cages located all around the room. It stuck the key in and turned it in the lock. The cage door swung open and what looked like a pile of rags backed up towards the wall, trying to stay away from the strange shadow creature. The shadow made a sound like snorting and then turned back to the other two guards. They made their way with the human boy and pushed him into the cage with the pile of rags. The black haired young man stuck out his tongue at them as they left the room, the doors automatically locking behind them.

"Why do they always have to be so stiff? Don't they _ever_ loosen up?" The man appeared to ask himself. He turned his head as he heard something whimper ever so slightly behind him. He gazed towards the pile of rags and smiled. Apparently the rags contained a human.

"Hey you all right man?" He asked the ragman. Or rather the _young_ rag man. His face was pale and he was thin to the bone. His hair was streaked with dirt and he smelled awful. His head was a strange almost football like shape, although this did not seem to faze the young black man. But perhaps one of the most noticeable things about him were his bright green eyes that twinkled with a strange light. The black haired man smiled at the other man, "All right! You still have your light!"

The green-eyed man whimpered again and pressed himself harder against the wall.

"He's afraid of you. He thinks you want to take his light."

The black haired man turned his head to the cage beside his and the ragman's. An elderly lady with gray hair was looking at him. She smiled crookedly at him, flashing her yellow, chipped teeth towards him. But, just like the odd shape of the man's head, it didn't seem to faze the young man, who simply smiled and held out his hand to her.

"Finally someone who speaks. My name is Gerald. What's yours?" The old woman took a hold of his arm and pumped it with more energy than would be expected from someone as old as her.

"I'm Rosemary, but most people just call me mama. Well actually only that sorry excuse for a seventeen year old sharing a cage with you calls me that, but that's only on a count of the fact that the rest of these people are too chicken or have forgotten how to talk. It is a pleasure to have a newcomer grace our dreary dungeon home." The old lady giggled slightly. Gerald smiled at her and then turned back to the ragman.

"So you're seventeen?" The ragman nodded slightly but then froze again. Gerald sighed and turned back to the Rosemary who shook her head at the ragman, "So what's his name and how long has he been here?"

"He doesn't have a name and he's been here ever since he was nine years old. We only know that he's seventeen 'cause I had found some chalk and have tallied up the days since he came here. And also since I came here," She leaned closer to Gerald and lowered her voice, "I'll be honest with you, I'm seventy-three, but I tell everyone else I'm only thirty-two. People in these dungeons will believe anything you tell them. Isn't it splendid?" Gerald nodded furiously.

"Frankly, I'd never have thought twice my dear." Rosemary giggled again and twirled a long gray lock in her fingers. She glanced towards the ragman and stopped, her face becoming serious.

"I must ask you a favor young man," She said her eyes focused on Gerald. He nodded furiously and she smiled at him slightly, "You would do what I ask before even hearing it?"

"Rosemary, anything you want, if it is in my power to obtain, I will do. For you have softened my heart." Rosemary snorted.

"Don't kid me boy. Your heart was soft before you even met me. But what I want you to do for me is," She leaned closer to him, her voice a mere whisper, "Take the boy with you."

Gerald looked startled, his green eyes showing his obvious confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't mess with me boy. You know as well as I do that you're busting out of here. Well when you get out I want you to take the boy along with you. I'm just an old fool, my times almost up, my light is almost gone. But the boy," She turned to look at him, her eyes shedding a motherly kind of glow, "He's got more to do before them Shadow's suck the light out of him."

"I take it your name's coming up soon on the list. But if my friends get here soon enough, wouldn't you want to be saved too?"

"Nah...In fact I'm almost looking forward to the end. Been cooped up here too long." Gerald's eyes grew wide as he heard her say this. Not many people would give up the chance to get out of the jails they were put in by the shadows. It was refreshing to find someone as noble as Rosemary appeared.

"Now you must do me a favor," Gerald took the old ladies hand and looked into her eyes, "If we get the chance to save you, promise me you'll come. That is what I ask of you."

Rosemary heaved a large sigh and looked intensely at the boy holding onto her hand. She was old and would be worthless to him. In fact she might even be considered a burden of sorts, but from the look in his chocolate brown eyes he would not be taking 'no' for an answer. Besides she was asking him to do something for him, so she should respect his own wishes.

She nodded deeply and watched as the young man smiled happily.

"Then we will get you out of here as soon as we can." He told her, glancing at the door he had come through only moments before.

"_We?_" Rosemary asked him curiously.

"Yes," He turned and grinned at her once again, "My friends will be here soon. They will help us and we will escape from here. Everything will be fine soon and you and this boy can come with us."

Rosemary opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the opening of the large, bolted door. Gerald felt a sense of dread when he saw the door opening slowly. It was not his friends; they most certainly would not have bothered opening the door and finding the proper keys. No, knowing his friends they would have just blasted the door off of its hinges and walked in doubled over in laughter at how terrible the defenses of the shadows were.

He felt something in his stomach drop as four long black fingers snaked around the door it was almost immediately followed by a pure dark head that peered around the corner and then stepped into the room where Gerald and Rosemary along with the Ragman were residing. Another one soon followed after the first.

"Tjyz gsu ipw imu. Suj potsg hsiepw zu muyjpa timu ymw dsyg'h puvg hsypp gyhgu wupoxoieh." Gerald grunted. He had never been able to understand what they were saying even after years of fighting them, although he did manage to pick up on a few words. There was something about 'old', 'light' and 'delicious'. He glanced uneasily towards Rosemary. He had a pretty good idea that they were talking about her.

Judging by the defiant look on her face--which seemed out of place against the tears spilling over her cheeks--she also knew what they had come for.

"Take care of him for me, Gerald," She murmured softly, her full attention on the shadows walking towards her. Gerald took her hand in his own and squeezed it very gently. She stole a glance at him and smiled sadly.

"I did enjoy teaching you in the beginning of your fourth grade year. I wish I had stayed and watched you grow more than I did. I hope its enough that I remember you at all...I don't remember much from those times...I thank you for your kind words and attempts at giving me hope, but my time is here and you must not try and stop it. Some things are inevitable, but that does not mean I will give up. Never forget me; Miss Rosemary Slovak." She then pulled her hand from Gerald's grasp. He stood gawking at her as she rose and stepped to the front of her cage. The shadows opened the lock and pulled on her arms, roughly leading her back behind the big locked door that they had emerged from.

"Miss Slovak?" He wondered aloud, looking dazedly at the old woman departing from him. The sad smile on her lips grew larger at his recognition. A look of deepest pondering crossed her face before she turned to him, slowing her pace down so that the shadow behind her growled in anger.

"Yeah, yeah. It'll only take a minute so stop your grumbling," She muttered, sounding extremely annoyed. She looked at Gerald and he locked his eyes with hers, "He was one of you, boy. I can't quite remember who he was, but he was one of you."

The shadow seemed to be quite fed up with the old woman's stalling and angrily shoved her forward so that she stumbled a bit. A few seconds later the door was locked yet again and Rosemary was gone. Gerald's shoulders shook. He knew enough to know that he would never see her again, and it was better that he didn't, because if he did she would not be the same--no one ever came back the same.

"Rosemama?" Gerald turned back to look at the man still residing in his cage. The man stood up and walked drunkenly towards the front of the cage. He wrapped his hands around the bars and sighed in defeat, "Rosemama is gone. I am...alone."

"No way, man. You still got me." The man whirled around quickly, the look of fear returning as quickly as it had left. It seemed as if he had forgotten that Gerald had been there at all. He shook his head quickly and threw himself back into his corner, whimpering slightly. Gerald sighed and walked over to him, leaning down and looking into his face.

"She said something about someone being one of us...Did she mean you? Could you really have been one of us? And what exactly did she mean by that?" He turned away when the ragman offered no answers. Time was going by too slowly, he wanted to be out of his dingy cage and back into the outside world. His companion was doing very little at helping to entertain him, and he needed to be entertained. It was when he was sitting and doing nothing that he remembered everything that had happened and what it meant.

"Come on! Can't you help me out? Can't you use that football-shaped noggin of yours to at least _try _and remember what Rosemary meant? Can't you..." He stopped. His eyes locked onto the ragman's head. He finally realized that he had only met one person in the whole world with a head shaped like that. The one person he had wished had been with him the whole time, but had given up hope on ever finding.

"Arnold?"

The football headed man looked up at him, his eyes not comprehending what Gerald had just said.

"W-what?"

"You," Gerald told him, pointing a finger, "You're Arnold, my-best friend-in-the-whole-world-who-I-thought-was-dead-but-just-realized-has-been-sitting-right-in-front-of-me, Arnold!" He bent down again and placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, "Don't you remember me, man? It's Gerald, your best friend and keeper of the tales! Don't you recognize your oldest friend?"

The ragman seemed more frightened then ever by the Gerald's actions, which made Gerald groan in frustration.

"Aw man...How am I suppose to get you to remember me?" He asked himself while pacing back and forth across the cell. An idea struck him then and the pacing halted. He rushed back to the young man in the corner. Smiling gently he stuck his thumb out and motioned for the other man to do the same.

"Now you wiggle your thumb--like this." He waggled his thumb and soon the other man was doing it too. Nothing seemed to change. The ragman was still giving him a dazed and confused look. Gerald was about to give up when he felt words at the tip of his tongue, struggling to break free.

"You're a bold kid, Arnold. A bold kid."

That did it.

The ragman stopped moving his thumb and looked up at Gerald, sudden realization dawning on his still boyish features. He dropped his hand, but then brought it back up to bury his face in his hands.

"Gerald..." He whispered to himself. The name was so familiar to him. It was the name of his best friend. His mind was filled with a vision of a day long ago. He could see a baseball field and suddenly smoke and screams. He could almost see Helga standing above him, her fists raised in an attack position. Her could almost feel her ribbon entwined in his fingers.

He reached into his pocket then and pulled out a long strand of ribbon. It was dirty and muddy and you could no longer tell that it used to be pink. It was gray and ugly and yet he gazed at it almost lovingly. There had been many nights where he had been extra scared and lonely. On those nights he would reach into a badly sewn pocket and pull out a thin strip of cloth. He could see flashes of a girl sometimes. She was a little blond girl with a pretty pink ribbon in her hair. He had not been able to remember her name and never quite knew why he had her ribbon, but it was there and it made him feel safer and not quite so lonely.

"You okay, man?"

Arnold looked up at Gerald and nodded. A smile crept over his lips. It was one of the first smiles he had worn in a long time. He could see Gerald looking at the ribbon, his mind full of questions, but he didn't ask any.

"I am fine. I'm a lot better than I have been. Its...good to see you again Gerald." He held out a hand then and Gerald shook it, "You mentioned your friends, right? You told Rosemama that they were going to save you?"

"Yes," Gerald told him, "It shouldn't be too long now."

"Then we should rest. Getting out of here may prove more difficult then you suspect. We may need strength, especially if we will be weaponless." Gerald nodded and sat down beside his old friend. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Arnold felt his smile grow a little wider as he leaned back against the wall too.

"Oh, my friends are going to be so surprised to see you. We all thought you were dead."

Arnold wanted to ask Gerald what friends he was talking about, but sleep was too inviting and soon enough it had both of them in its grasp and neither spoke for the next few hours.

--------

Bang.

"What was that?!" Arnold lurched awake, gazing frantically around for the source of the entire ruckus. He could feel Gerald stirring beside him and he turned to see him smiling.

"_That _would be my friends."

Crash.

The big bolted door was blasted straight off of its hinges. It flew back and hit the wall at the opposite end of the room. Arnold could only stare in shock as a figure stepped out of the rubble and on top of the door. He could only stare as the figure placed their hands on their hips and waved smoke out of its face.

"For Cripes sake Wolfgang. Isn't there a less smoky way that you can do this? I do like the grand entrance though. I'm sure Geraldo's really jealous about now. This was supposed to be his entrance until Little Miss Perfect felt that she was too important to be the bait. Hey! Tall Hair Boy?! Are you in here?"

Arnold let his mouth drop a few more inches as the smoke cleared and in stepped a figure he had only seen in brief flashes in over a decade. Only a mere thirteen feet away stood Helga G. Pataki in all of her glory.

--------

A/N: Sorry I'm kind of leaving you guys at a cliffhanger. I'm not promising that this will be updated a lot, but I will try and update as soon as possible. I've got a lot on my mind right now.

I hope everyone enjoyed it!


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